UPDATE: Oil finished the day down more than 2 percent. Brent slid to $55.47, falling from the 18-month high it hit early in the day, Reuters reports.
ORIGINAL: On the first trading day of 2017, oil prices hit 18-month highs, Reuters reports.
Benchmark Brent crude rose by more than 2 percent to a high of $58.37, its highest level since July 2015. Oil prices jumped on hopes that OPEC’s deal with Russia and other oil exporters to reduce output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) will actually come to fruition.
As part of the deal, Russia is expected to cut output by 300,000 bpd. However, there is no certainty Russia, or other producers, will follow through on the output cuts they pledged.